Fragile Dreams: Memoir of Ruins
by XxstrawberrybloomxX
Summary: In a never ending dream, I saw every person dear to me vanish. Endless nights continued to pass me by without any sights of me waking up. I wandered around. No direction, no destination, no will. On the brink of utter despair shone a light -bright, warm- thus a flower of hope sprouted in my heart. A single voice, carrying the last shreds of my believes, was calling out to me
1. Prologue

„What a weird letter. It's pretty old too." Emi folded back the tattered letter and put the brown discolored paper into the envelope in which she had found it.

The girl had found the item in a mail box addressed to the building she was temporarily staying in. The building, a high school, served its purpose. It had enough room to sleep in, food, shelter and things for her to use.

It had been a good thing she had found this school. Her food supplies had been depleting. She would have either starved or been eaten by hungry wolf ghosts.

During the exploration of the half destroyed building, she found a letter in an almost good shape. Emi didn't quite understand what the boy in the letter had meant with the 'not enough time'. She pocketed the letter into her small survival bag and slung it over her shoulder.

For a few months now, she has been wandering around aimlessly in hopes to find anything, but as it seemed there was nothing. Only abandoned buildings and a lot of destroyed things in the cities she's already been. The more she walked, the more the days passed her by, the more her hopes were crumbling apart.

"I should get going now" Emi told herself, clutching at the small bag. She sighed. The feeling of weakness was overcoming her being. It was something akin to sense of lost or depression, although she wasn't sure how to call what she was feeling.

The brown haired girl slowly walked through the obstacle ridden hallway. Like every part of what she had already seen, most of the building were abandoned and destroyed. Before everything of those disasters occurred everything was so bleak, though that was what she remembered from when she was younger. The way now everything looked like seemed oddly natural with vines and plants wrapping themselves around manmade creation and devices.

The area wasn't really filled with ghosts, but Emi still had to be careful. Not many were friendly, especially the wolf ghosts. They were incredibly aggressive.

The hallway was clear for now. Just to be sure, she grabbed for the small knife inside her bag. Who know what could happen. Once she was in the infirmary, where she was camping in, she stacked the knife back.

Exploring new areas took a lot of courage and power. There could be always ghosts lurking around, somewhere where she couldn't spot it. She shivered at the thought of it, but pushed it to the back of her mind.

Emi slouched down on the pre-made bed, consisting of stacked up blankets and clothes. She pulled her bag onto her lap and inspected the inside.

"Two canned boxes, a flashlight, a map, a water bottle, a knife- already rusted though- a rope, rags, a first aid kit…" She placed every item on the ground. Now she had a better view on them.

The canned food had to be stocked up, at least for two weeks for her to last. The map showed the area she was in. Her eyes focused on the knife. It was rusty and already starting to fall apart. Emi would just hurt herself with it. She assumed, she would have to get a new one.

The water bottle had to be filled again. Maybe she should get one more? It has become quite exhausting lately to walk such lengthy paths and one bottle probably wouldn't suffice anymore. Her condition was getting worse. Distances she could walk before seemed almost impossible now. She walked and walked, but it never ended. She just had enough.

The girl sighed.

There was too much to think and worry about. It was tiring. Annoying too. She would much rather relax and do nothing at all for a change.

Emi packed the laid out items into the bag and let herself fall down on the bed.

'A nap would be good' She thought peacefully. Her eyelids were heavy, feet sore and her body was already giving in to the exhaustion that was slowly, but surely nagging into her soul. Soon, she fell asleep.

_Grrrowl!_

Emi's eyes shot open.

She threw herself from the warm sheets, searching for her bag. She quickly slung it over her shoulders and immediately set off. Cautious as she was, she peeked out into the hallway.

Nothing.

The growl had been distant. Maybe two hallways away. The brown-haired girl sneaked out and made her to the cafeteria, where stocked up cans were hidden. She hadn't expected the surprise arrival of ghosts.

'The food have with me won't last much longer. Restocking it with the ones in the cafeteria should last for two weeks. Ugh, why did the ghosts have to appear now? I'll have to get the cans while avoiding them!"

Emi carefully thought of a safe route. 'The safest one should be through the laboratory with the bridge to the other building"

The girl ducked under debris as a distinct growl of a wolf resounded through the hallway. She gulped, staying as quiet as possible. Her heart beats increased. She could clearly feel her heart hammering against her ribcage.

_Grroowlll!_

The animalistic grunts were closer than before. The girl wrapped her cardigan tighter around her. For some reason, she felt cold.

Light taps approached her hiding spot under the debris. She shifted closer into the shadow of the remnants of walls and rocks. The steps drew closer and stopped beside her head. Emi held her breath and tensed up, her body trembled in fear. The wolf paws shifted around on the ground.

Specks of dust flew up from the action, causing her to nearly sneeze if she hadn't held her breath.

'Why isn't it moving away? Did it spot me?' Though, that wasn't it. If it really had, then it would have already attacked. 'Still, if it doesn't move soon, I'll have to take action!' Emi thought bitterly.

Fighting wasn't her strong point, she knew it. She would much rather avoid something like that to evade any more hardships.

The brown-haired girl silently slipped her right hand into her bag, pulling out the rusty knife. She held it in the direction of the ghost, ready to lung forward and fight.

'Five seconds should do it' She tightened her grip around the handle of the knife.

Five.

_Everything is fine._

Four.

_No need to worry_.

Three.

_Just one hit, then everything will be over._

Two.

_Here goes nothing._

One.

_NOW-_

Emi froze in her track.

The ghost disappeared. No matter how many times she blinked or squinted her eyes, it was still the same. The ghost had disappeared into thin air. She crawled out from the debris, careful not to cut herself with the knife.

Still trembling and shaken, she pushed the mysterious ghost into the back of her mind. She had to get out of her and fast.

The rest of the way to the bridge was relatively quiet without having to encounter another ghost too close for comfort.

Emi tucked back the fallen strand of hair behind her ear. With the knife in hand, she opened the door to the laboratory and entered it. To be safe, she closed it behind her.

'No ghosts. Either they haven't come here or they are somewhere else' The girl crouched down and move forwards to the other side of the room, where a door lead to the desired bridge.

She winced as she accidentally stepped on a broken flask.

'Well that was dangerous' She sighed in relief. It didn't alarm any ghosts, if any were near her and she didn't cut her foot.

This time with more carefulness, she moved to the door and peeked inside. Emi spotted no ghosts through the small creak, only a chaotic mess of destroyed walls and the broken furniture. The room connected with the bridge had remained the same the first time she found it. Emi slipped inside and tip toed her through the bridge.

Nothing seemed out of the ordinary yet and she was glad. The encounter with the ghost on her way was already enough and she really didn't want a repeat of it.

"Everything's gonna be fine. Just stay calm!" The girl repeated those words in her mind over and over again like a chant. It kept her nerves at bay and her mind distracted from unnecessary negative thoughts. She had to stay positive.

After crossing the bridge and making it to the kitchen whilst avoiding the ghosts was a success. She was able to secure the cans in her bag with still enough space to fit something inside in case of an emergency. Emi's face scrunched up as she thought back to a similar experience.

She shook her head to throw the imagines out of her head, continuing on her route out of the building. On her way out, she peeked left and right, up and down to look out for any signs of ghosts. She had a gut feeling that something felt horribly off.

The brown haired girl tip toed down a hallway. Water leaked in from various places. With the leaking water came also the moistened air, making Emi sick in the stomach. It was a weird feeling to be in such an atmosphere she wasn't used to. The usual places she stayed at had no water running, leaving only dryness and dust to inhale.

She shook her head, breaking out of her thoughts and hastily continued her pace. There were a lot of obstacles blocking the ground for a steady footing. Emi did her best in evading small creaks and puddles. From time to time she glanced around the place, fearing that something would surprise from nowhere, but it never came. That made her anxious, whereas she should have been relieved that nothing happened.

She let out a ragged breath, calming her nerves and her ever so returning trembling in her fingers. With a last intake of air, she tightly clutched her bag and quietly marched forward towards the exit of the building.

_Nothing to worry about. Everything's fine._

The frail girl repeated it inside of her head for the nth time. Emi's eyes widened when she caught the sight of a door with a small sign of a stick figure running through a door hanging loosely above it. Relief welled up in her chest. She was glad that she finally arrived at the exit. The escape had felt like an eternity.


	2. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

The sound of wind rushing through the tall grass that was sprouting out of cracks of cemented paths was calming. The sun was up in the sky, shining soothingly on Emi's skin. It had been a few days since she escaped from the high school. Now she was strolling around a once populated area of the town she was walking through.

There were a lot of shops at every street, of course, most of them were already abandoned and left to decay. Emi noticed that a lot of those shops had been party destroyed, glass lying everywhere and doors broken in. None of these damages looked fresh, so she assumed that it had happened quite a few years back. Probably around the time when everything happened.

Emi stopped walking along the wide street surrounded by all those shops. Her legs and feet were hurting badly. She had been walking since the sun was up and hadn't taken a proper rest during it either.

Her eyes scanned the area. Shops, grass, buildings falling apart and a lot of shady-looking houses. Her mind went through all possibilities that she could think of. In the end she decided to take a rest outside, not wanting to risk any attacks from ghosts or the ceiling falling down on her.

To her right, she saw small sets of stones in the shape of cylinders.

"I could rest there for a bit…" She mused, approaching the weird shapes.

She had never seen those kinds of stones shapes before. Since they seemed to be manmade they should have some kind of purpose for being positioned near the street. She patted her hand on the surface of the cylinder shaped stone, feeling some dry moss growing on it.

"Good, it's not wet or anything" She took a seat on the stone, her feet and legs that had to carry the weight of her body were relieved from their duty. Emi sighed in content when the pain subsided although only a little. The aching was still present, but without the constant support for her weight she could feel the accumulated blood inside her legs decline.

Emi sighed happily. Now that she could rest her legs, she felt so much better. For some time now she's been suspecting that the distances she covered were growing lesser and lesser each day and that was a problem to her.

To fix that, she forced herself to walk more than her legs could endure. The first days were the worst but after some days she could more or less bear with the pain.

Emi could feel a warm breeze pass through the street, tenderly caressing her auburn hair with it. She flinched when some strands of her hair fell into her eyes. With one of her hands she removed them and tucked them behind her ears only for them to be carried away by the wind again.

It was quiet in the area. Only the wind made sounds by blowing through tall grass, small crevices or moving light objects like curtains or old newspaper.

Emi wondered how the city must have been like when there were still a lot of people around. She read somewhere that the street she was in had been one of the busiest with a lot of people going in and out of these shops.

"Lots of people, bustling streets, packed stores, neon lights during the night illuminating the city…" She fantasied how the city would have looked like back then, many, many years ago. All the things she read and heard about seemed like a fairy tale to her or a time she never would have imagined with all these ruins nowadays.

But there was proof, right in front of her eyes. Her eyes racked all over the ruins that were once those picturesque sceneries. Her heart clenched painfully, a frown formed on her face.

She had been wandering around for quite a long time. Despite that she never met anyone else or saw anything resembling what was left of those things in the past. She'd been wandering around for so long and yet…

Her heart was now painfully tight the more she thought about. She had to stop. Emi's breath came out fast and ragged. Tears were gathering in her eyes, dangerously close to falling down.

"Why…? I've been searching for so long! And yet, and yet… Why isn't anyone here!?" Emi cried out. The tears were now freely falling from her eyes, dripping down on the dusty asphalt. With both of her hands she wiped away the tears, but they kept coming out of her eyes. Eventually her sleeves were wet with salty water.

So many months, days, hours and minutes! She had been searching so long! Just why couldn't she find anyone!?

The realization that she was alone, facing dangers and struggling to survive out there hit her hard. She had no one she could depend on nor was anyone nearby if she ever was in danger. Alone, fighting through countless days for absolutely nothing.

She cried once more, her voice quivering when she breathed. The tug on her heart was squeezing the air out of her lungs. Emi tried to regulate her breathing, but it was hard to concentrate with her mind breaking apart.

Sobs rose out of her mouth after crying for so much. She hadn't cried since a few years ago. She had told herself that crying wouldn't do anything. Crying wouldn't help her nor will anyone come to her rescue if she ever did.

And now, here she was, sobbing like a little girl, all alone in an empty street. The tears were still dripping down her cheeks although in a smaller amount so there wasn't any need for her to wipe them. Emi's eyes were bloodshot and partly burning from the excessive rubbing to make the tears stop falling.

She sniffled, tired from all the crying and venting. Although Emi had told herself to never cry again, it felt good on her mind. Something inside had lifted too, like an additional weight being hoisted from her.

Regardless she still felt depressed. Those lingering feelings of being lost were nevertheless somewhere transfixed in her. Emi didn't like it. She didn't want to remember any of these.

Not that it mattered anymore at this point. Her search for people was fruitless and furthermore it would be pointless to continue to do so. After all she had been searching for some months. The chances were low and she wasn't sure if she could make it through with all those monsters lurking around.

A sob forced itself out of Emi. She should really stop thinking about it, but she just couldn't! Her situation was absolutely hopeless. Scarce food and water supplies, roaming ghosts, her dropping walking pace and the non-existing people in every city she had been.

Were there really no other people besides her? Was she really alone here? What should she do now?

Another sob escaped her. Emi felt tears gathering in her eyes again. Just what has she been doing all this time then!?

The auburn haired girl lifted her hands up to her eyes, carefully wiping away the tears that had started to fall again. She hissed when the salty liquid touched the aggravated skin under her eyes. Emi was so busy trying to suppress her depressive thoughts and stinging pain that she almost overheard a muffled crackle.

Emi perked up by the sound, instantly overrun by a flood of panic. She hastily jumped off the stone cylinder and grabbed for the rusty knife idly sitting in her bag. The knife, held in both of her feeble hands, was pointed protectively in front of her. The girl's restless eyes scrutinized every inch of the surroundings.

"How was this possible? It wasn't even night yet!" She went pale, fingers and toes growing colder with the drain of blood. Cold sweat was forming all over her body. Emi could feel the anxiety creep up again. That dreadful feeling when something was scaring her, something that would definitely harm her.

She should probably run, but she was too tired to even power walk. Her legs felt funny, strained and screaming at every move she made. Even shifting her weight from one foot to the other was hurting her. Perhaps it had been a very bad decision to rest up in the middle of a street with so many buildings encompassing it.

Emi jumped in her skin as a new crackle followed. Her breath hitched. The noise sounded louder this time. It resembled a screech, a really weird one that Emi never had heard of. She didn't recall such an odd sounding screech. It was safe to assume it was some kind of new ghost type haunting this place.

"If that's the case I should escape as fast as possible" Emi turned towards the direction she had intended to go before she took to rest and started to dash. However her legs had given out causing the auburn haired girl to trip.

Before she could register what was happened, she felt unbelievable pain coursing through her head, hands and legs. She screamed in agony. The fact that hostile ghosts could be nearby didn't cross her mind in that state. All she could discern was the overall pain flowing through her being.

Tears prickled in her eyes, hands burning and air knocked out of her lungs. Emi struggled with the aches but managed to calm down enough to see why her body hurt so badly.

Apparently, after she had tripped Emi's hands had instinctively tried to shield the body and thus took the most damage from the fall. Additionally her hands weren't able to withstand the heavy pressure from gravity and her weight, causing the rest of the body to collide with the cold ground.

Her head had crashed on the ground which was the cause of her dizziness and pain on her face. Her belly had also fallen flat on the ground, temporarily knocking away the air in the lungs. Out of the corner of her eyes, she saw the rusty knife she had been holding lying innocently resting a few feet out of reach of her hands.

The frail girl moaned in pain, her hands were really burning. She supposed that she had slid on her hands while crashing into the ground.

_Bzzt!_

Emi slowly registered the noise, her mind still fuzzy from the sudden fall. When she finally organized her mind, she scrambled away into the middle of the street, looking into every direction. She had completely forgotten about the bizarre noise.

_Bzzt!_

Emi attempted to stand up and run, but all she could do was pathetically flop back on her bottom. She slowly realized with every second that she had messed up. Not only was she losing every reason to continue what she had been doing, but she was injured, hurting and most of all crying again.

The urge to flee from the bizarre noise dissolved into thin air. The dejected girl sobbed uncontrollably, hugging her knees and curling into the smallest ball possible.

"…An…par…" Another set of those erratic screeches reverberated throughout the street, but this time it sounded just a little different than before.

Emi took no heed of the change, too busy with bawling her eyes out that she missed that tiny bit of difference.

"…Hel…ill…Come!" Emi peered from her knees. Her vision was blurry due to her tears and her mind was unfocused, yet she could hear a few illegible words coming out from somewhere. The worn out girl sniffed, wiped her tears and forcibly pushed herself up.

There wasn't any reason for her to investigate those noises. For all she knew it could have been a hostile ghost trying to lure her into a trap. However something in the very far back of her mind was nagging her to look, search and find the source of it.

_Look! There is something there! You can do it!_

Emi staggered past the stone cylinders she had been sitting on and made her way towards the houses with shaky feet. The odd noises were growing louder the closer she was to the houses.

"Any…look!" This time she could hear parts of words. There weren't any full sentences, but it did raise Emi's hopes, only a little bit. If the voice was from a human, it should respond back if she called out to it, right? She tried her luck.

"Is anyone… there? Where are you?" She wheezed out, her voice cracking midsentence. Silence. There was no response to her questions. Her heart dropped. It was too good to be true after all. She was an idiot for believing that there would be a person inside those ruins.

"If anyone… here…help…come!"

But the voice of that person sounded real. Real enough to convince Emi to look for it. She didn't know if it was a human or a ghost, so she had to find out, right? After she proved herself wrong, she might as well give up entirely.

"If anyone is here… help will come!" Emi supported herself on the wall with her hand, slowly walking along it.

"Don't… -rry! I'm here… alive!" Alive, a person was alive. Emi tried again to call out to the person.

"If you're here, please answer me!" She desperately shouted. No answer again. The voice repeated the same sentences over and over again. Sometimes words were left out, other times words were unclear.

The possibility of running into a human was slim. If that person was really alive, then why was he not answering? Couldn't he hear her? He only repeated the same words over and over again.

"If anyone is here…!" The voice repeated, but Emi wasn't able to hear the rest of the sentence. The moment her hand which was supporting her, leaned on a door, she fell. The door had given out under the slight pressure she applied and broke down with Emi following after it.

That was the second time she fell today. Her body crashed onto the ground. She moaned in pain, pushing herself up. Dust had flown up, concealing the inner structure of the building she had fallen in. The girl coughed as she accidentally inhaled some dust.

"If anyone is here, please answer. I'm sure help will come" The male voice was clear that she had been hearing for minutes now, was clear, but it still felt weird to Emi. It didn't sound like as if that person was actually saying it.

The dust had cleared. Emi saw several bookshelves and boxes standing deserted around the room. She stood up, brushing off some excess dust that had landed on her clothes. The room was mostly scattered with broken things, a lot of shattered pieces of glass included.

Emi stared under her feet, noticing that the door had protected her from falling into a heap of razor sharp glasses. It might have been her, pierced and cut by those glasses instead of the door. She shuddered at the thought.

She stepped carefully inside the room. The inside was fairly darks due to the lack of windows or open windows. The glasses under her feet were cracking when she stepped over them, but she didn't pay any mind to them. Her goal was to find the voice.

For some reason the voice was silent. Not even the bizarre noises were there. The moment she stepped inside, silence greeted her. Moments before that she could have sworn that the voice was as clear as clean river water.

Emi took a moment to look around the room. There were a lot of small transparent cases inside the shelves. Round shiny plates were inside those cases. She remembered seeing those things before, but her memories of it were quite vague.

Aside from these cases were a lot of other strange looking things. She limped further inside, arriving at a tall shelf. Somewhere on the shelf was a medium sized machine. Emi picked it up, tip toeing as she did so since it was placed on one of the higher shelves.

The device had the shape of a rectangle. It was neither too heavy nor too light. Emi wondered what kind of device it was and what it was for. The auburn haired girl tried to shake it, but nothing it didn't make any sound.

The front, she guessed, had one circle shaped thing near the upper right corner. She gently touched the circle shape. The shape unlike the other parts of the device was made out of some kind of metal. It hadn't a smooth surface, there were small gaps neatly made into the shape. Moreover the circle wasn't flat either. The circle was one big bump embedded into the plastic body of the device.

Emi didn't understand the design of the device. She had never seen something like that before.

_Bzzt! Crash!_

The bizarre noise returned, startling the poor girl. The thing that frightened her the most was the fact that the device she was holding had produced that exact bizarre noise. The frame had shaken a little, causing more fright in the already distressed girl.

The fright had caused her to drop the little machine. It landed with a loud crash on the ground. Emi watched as parts of the device broke off the frame and flying into various directions of the floor.

BZZzzztt….

The noise faded and then completely died down. Emi had taken several steps back, both hands in the air protectively held up in a rigid posture. After the noise died down she relaxed.

Emi carefully collected the damaged device from the ground. Now that it was damaged, parts broken off, she was able to see the inside. There were a lot of small things inside it, connected and stuck together.

It kind of resembled a flashlight, just more complex than one. But that wasn't the most surprising thing. That little device was the source of those bizarre noises and the mysterious voice. She was still a bit stumped about the fact that this device made two different kinds of noises.

One thing was for sure though. The device she had found could be something of a lead to find a person, but the problem was that she accidentally broke it while being scared. In other words she was back to square one.


	3. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

The sky was darkening with the sun slowly being slowly swallowed by the earth and at last disappearing from the horizon. Emi was shivering inside a small apartment room nearby the shop where she had found the unknown device.

She had been trying all day to repair the thing, but all she did was damage it more. After four unsuccessful tries of repairing it, she had decided to make a temporary shelter somewhere nearby.

The room was moderately clean. Like any other rooms she had been, this one too was cluttered and dirtied. The auburn-haired girl was sitting on the single bed with a massive heap of sheets piled on it. One of the sheets was settled on Emi's back, warming her throughout the cold night.

The device was laying in front of her, unresponding. She thoroughly smashed it to bits during her attempts to repair it. Parts of the frame had fallen off, from the fall and from the repairing. Emi wasn't sure if she would ever get it to work again.

The voice she had heard had definitely come from that very device she had broken. Now that she had completely broken it, she had lost her single lead to find other humans.

A cloud of depression overcame her. She didn't have the knowledge to get the thing working again. So what was she supposed to do?

Emi flinched. A strong gust of wind had passed through the house, causing light weights to clatter around. The auburn-haired girl shivered at the coldness the wind had brought inside the room. She clutched the sheet around her and wrapped it tightly around her whole body. The only thing out of the cocoon was her head, bobbing up and down.

Her body was now feeling the aftermath of her travel and break down. Both her mind and body was exhausted. She set the device aside on a nearby nightstand at the side of the bed and wiggled into a comfortable sleeping position inside the nest of sheet she had created. Soon she fell asleep inside the warm mess of sheets.

A small ray of sun shine tickled Emi awake. Her once sleeping face was now crunching up. The auburn-haired girl wriggled out of her cocoon and rubbed off the sleepiness from her face.

Emi blinked, gazing around the room. The room was the same when she had fallen asleep. Nothing in particular fell off. She turned to the window and noticed that the sun was high up in the sky.

The estimated time would be around 2 pm. Emi lazily pushed the sheets away, uncovering herself from it. The cold from yesterday night had disappeared and was replaced by a pleasant warmth.

Emi stretched her body. She could feel her muscles stretch inside her flesh.

A new day had begun, but it was different than those other mornings she had experienced. Today she felt alive. Alive to go out and face all those ghosts she had been scared of. Maybe that was kind of stretch, but she was certain that something heavy inside of her had been lifted.

Emi jumped off the bed and adjusted her clothes. She grabbed the bag which she had discarded on the ground and slung it over her scrawny shoulders. Next was the device she had laid down and stuffed that inside her bag as best as she could.

Ready and set to go, Emi straightened her back and exited her temporary shelter.

She wasn't sure on what to do now. One thing was sure though. One of her objectives was now to repair that device that held necessary clues to find a living human.

A problem was how to repair it. A bigger problem was she didn't even know where to begin. Her pace slowed down in a considerably fast speed. She was standing a few meters away from the house she had stayed in.

Emi thought of several ways on how to solve that problem, but none seemed to be helpful at all. Either way she wasn't even sure if her current knowledge was sufficient. After all, the device which she had found inside the glass shard filled house was an unknown object.

Most of the unknown objects belonged to the time before Emi existed. She wasn't too familiar with that time, but she knew some things about them since she used to read a lot of old books.

However none of the books she had read, never mentioned about anything about a thing that was similar to her found.

Clogs and wheels turned in her head, but all that came out of it was dirty smoke and maybe some squished ideas.

_Clank._

Emi flinched at the sound. At the speed of lightning her head was facing the direction the sound had come from. The source had come from a narrow alley next to the building she had stayed in.

Emi stuck her hand inside her bag and pulled out the rusty knife. She held it in front of her in case something is going to jump at her.

The next few seconds were spent in awkward silence. There wasn't any more sounds and it definitely didn't seem that anything was going to come out.

She hesitantly lowered the knife and stared at the alley for a few seconds before turning around and trying to find a solution to her problems.

Emi sucked in a breath as she walked along the path. Today she had been hearing noises here and there, mostly in some obscure alleys or inside nearby houses. Her nerves were on edge, her knife gripping the knife handle with sweaty hands.

The auburn-haired girl let her gaze sway to the side where a street sign was hanging loosely from a building. It looked dangerously close to falling. There were words on the sign, but it was in a foreign language.

She had seen those letters all over the city, which was weird because this city had a lot of these unlike other cities she had been in.

A look to the other side of the street showed her another sign. That one though was still in one piece and unlike the other not dangling from the building. The words on the sign however were Japanese.

_Clank._

Yet another clanking sound nearby caught her attention. The sound would appear, but then disappear again as if Emi had caught a crime in act. The clank sounds were harmless. They didn't appear to do anything besides following her wherever she went.

Even though it was straight down odd that something was following her from afar, she wasn't curious enough to find out what it was. It may be harmless like that, but she wasn't looking forward to being attacked with her guard let down.

She just decided to let the sound be, maybe it would leave her soon alone, considering how long it had followed her now. After all the sun was sun going to set soon.

Emi continued to walk towards the only direction the street was going, knife still in hand.


	4. Chapter 4

It was alright, she thought to herself. After all what can mere sounds do to her? Apparently a lot more than she wanted to and it left her paranoid.

The clanking sounds weren't coming closer. It was more like as if they stayed at a certain distant to her. Emi was glad that it stayed at a comfortable distance to her, but on the other hand she wasn't.

Just what was it intentions? Why only stay at a distance rather than confronting her directly? Maybe it was a human? A ghost? Emi hoped it wasn't those annoying legs that liked to kick her.

As long as the sounds didn't get closer, she was safe. At least that's what she hoped.

Whenever she went out, her knife was ready to be used. She didn't want to take any risks. Two days passed way too slowly. It was probably her paranoia that caused it. Everything seemed so slow, as if it was in slow motion. Emi was swinging her legs back and forth on the swing she occupied. The day was young and the other surviving humans won't run away. Maybe.

She was feeling better. Better than the time she cried her eyes out. The device remained broken for several days. Emi had no clue how to repair it. It would take some more time to fix it, it would seem.

Another clank echoed throughout the empty street. Emi who had become accustomed to it, ignored it as best as she could. That was until something thin and hard knocked on her head.

Emi screamed out in pain, the knife which had been in her hand, cluttered to the ground. She clutched the spot where she had been hit. She could feel a small cutting wound on the back of her head and a bump was already forming.

She quickly realized that she had dropped her knife and clumsily gathered it up into one hand. She whipped around from where she assumed the object had flown from, but all she saw was an empty street.

Stumped, she glanced at the projectile that targeted her head. It was a small tin can. It was empty and probably emptied years ago judging from the dried up contents and the dirt and dust gathered in the inside.

In anger she kicked the can. Emi watched it fly up into the air then rapidly drop to the ground where it was tinkering on the hard asphalt. She huffed, feeling hurt both emotionally and physically. Emotionally because someone actually threw an empty tin can at her for whatever reason. Physically because that projectile fulfilled its purpose of hurting her head.

Crash! Clank!

Emi flinched and whipped around. A lone plastic bottle rolled along the pavement on to the street. Another set of disturbing sounds filled the silence reigning on the street and yet again something made its way to the asphalt. This time it was a small pot.

Emi nervously shifted her weight from one foot to the other. It didn't seem like that anything would jump out considering the accurate throw at her head. Moreover there were just random clanking noises inside the house, but nothing that would harm her.

Feeling a little bit brave, the auburn-haired girl approached the dinky house, peeking inside. She didn't see anything from where she was looking in, but the noises continued to ring out.

With a swift movement, she slipped inside the house without a noise. She had entered a small hallway that connected to three rooms. The noises she was hearing were coming from the room that was located the furthest away from her.

Uncertain, she thought what she should do. She could first search through the other rooms and scavenge what she could find and then look for the thing responsible for the noises. After all she had been running low on supplies for a while and it would be nice to fill it up again.

The downside was that she would be distracted with resupplying that her guard would be down and she didn't like the thought of being in a pinch again like she had been inside the school. Emi shuddered at the thought.

In the end she decided that it was better to find the source of the noises instead of making a detour. One, she was too scared to meet the consequences of her carelessness, not that finding out what it is that is making the noise was safe either. Two, she really wanted to know what it is that has been chasing her for the past few days. If it was a hostile ghost, she thought bitterly, she might cry at her stupidity. Three, there were plenty of other houses which she could scavenge.

Emi took a deep breath and slowly opened the door at the end of the hallway. She entered after looking right and left. The room was gigantic in her opinion. The single room could have been one of those small houses she had been in. It was definitely too spacious for a mere person.

Sadly, just like any other thing, everything was dusty and full of dirt. Also it seemed that other people had been here before her or maybe it were the owners. Almost half of the furniture had been damaged or destroyed and small things like books or tea cups were lying on the ground. Forgotten and left behind.

The curtains were drawn closed, a few sun rays shone through the tears inside them into the room. The room itself was only dimly lit, but it was enough for Emi to see everything. She noticed that the right side of the room was blocked by wooden planks.

Emi strode over to the right side of the room and inspected the handiwork.

The planks seemed to be hastily nailed to the wall. A few peek holes were there, but even if she looked through them, it was pitch black. Emi turned around and saw that the other walls had windows, but none of them were covered or touched for that matter.

Curious why a person would block of a single wall, she tried to pry the blanks away with her bare hands. She gave a plank that was standing out a bit than the others a hard thug. A small but high pitched screeching sound came from the wood.

Emi cringed at the sound, but she could endure a few horrible sounds for the reason of this strange barricade.

"What are you doing!?" Emi jumped in her skin, instantly letting go of the wooden plank. She turned on her heels, eyes searching for the voice that had yelled at her.

Her eyes met a small boy, just around the age of 10. His face was scrunched up in fear, like he had witnessed someone dying. His pale blonde hair was unkempt and fell into his face. Other than that he was dressed normally with a white shirt, brown shorts and a pair of leather shoes.

"I was asking what you are doing!" He shouted again with a little more force behind it. Emi got the message and hastily answered.

"I was curious what was behind the-" She was quickly cut off during her explanation. She shrank back when she was thoroughly given a scolding.

"Don't you ever do that again! There's a reason behind a barricade! A barricade is there to keep things away that might harm you. This barricade-" The boy pointed at the wall covered in planks "it keeps a hostile creature away from entering this house. And you were almost going to let it enter because of your curiosity!"

The boy stomped on the ground. It seemed almost comically if it weren't for the dreadful fact that Emi had almost let something so dangerous loose.

"You were lucky that I was around. If not, you might have been as good as dead!" The boy huffed. Emi just stared at him with dumbfounded look, almost as if he had grown a second head.

"Whatever now. As long as you now know to keep away from it, everything is going to just fine"

The boy had just turned around when a low but deep growling sound rumbled through the air. Emi's heart skipped a beat. That growling noise sounded close, too close for comfort and it meant trouble.

The growls kept coming. Louder, deeper and more threatening. It ran shivers down her spine and it seemed that she wasn't the only one cowering by those noises.

"We need to get of here" Emi stood still "Now!"

Before she knew what was going on, the boy had scampered through the door and left Emi behind. Still flabbergasted, but in a bewildered panic, she made a quick exit, following the boy.

In one swift moment, she was out of the house and slowed down.

"Keep running!" The boy who was a few houses away yelled out. She started picking up her pace again to catch up to the boy.

"But it should be safe with the barricade still u-" Emi wasn't able finish her sentence when the door a few meters behind her was blasted away. Her breath hitched. Emi took off in a full sprint after the boy.

The growls she had heard moments before in the house were now directly behind her. She prayed that whatever had bolted out of the house wasn't chasing her down at the very moment. She didn't even glance back for an instant, fearing that the monster would immediately catch up with her.

The boy with the long coat made sharp left turn at the next crossing and she ran after him towards the crossing. Emi followed the boy suit in the sharp turn, but slipped when she twisted her body to the left.

Her feet slid across the paved ground with her upper body falling back. Instinctively her hands tried to push her upper body back up, but due to the force of her running speed they were only able to prevent her torso from scraping down. And instead her hands took the damage.

She hissed when the uneven ground cut itself into her hands and part of her arms.

When her body came to a halt, she scrambled up, ignoring her new open wounds. She made a few limping steps before something crashed behind her. Out of reflex she whipped her head around.

An enormous mess of black fur latched to the ground where seconds ago she had been lying on. Emi saw a glimpse of a massive jaw with white teeth. Between the fangs was a piece of asphalt that was partly pierced by the sharp teeth.

That one image was enough for Emi to run for her dear life. She didn't care if her wounds ached, she didn't care if the headwind was whipping against her, she didn't care if her limping legs were giving away. The only thing she cared about in that instant was to get away as fast as possible.


End file.
